The Road to Slaying God - Chapter 17

Translator: Grim

Rewriter: Slimicee

As Zhang Yang entered the library, he was struck by a sudden epiphany. Although only 2 years had passed, he felt as if he had gone through multiple generations worth of experiences.

There weren’t that many people in the library. Looking the same as always, the old woman with glasses still sat at the same office desk while sorting the old and damaged books, just like she had two years ago. She still gave off that same focused attitude, and her office desk was covered with tools such as glue and scissors. She was the librarian. Apparently, she was single and had never married; instead, she continued working at this library for many years.

She didn’t even lift her head when Zhang Yang walked in.

Zhang Yang immediately headed towards the mathematics publications. There was already a person, who looked like a teacher, there browsing through the books. Zhang Yang felt too lazy to talk to him as he wasn’t very familiar with any of the school’s teachers outside of his own department.

Zhang Yang reached for a book, and the moment he opened it, he was completely engrossed. The world of numbers captivated him once more; the richness of the texts here were on a different level to the one Yi Ran had.

Time slowly, slowly flowed onwards…

What Zhang Yang didn’t know was that his own actions had already attracted the attention of the teacher next to him.

The old man taught math. At first, he didn’t pay much attention to Zhang Yang, but as Zhang Yang continuously cycled through book after book, the old man couldn’t help but become intrigued.

The young man before himself had a suspicious aura. It hadn’t even been more than two hours since he first came in, yet he’d already switched books four times. At first he would go take a seat with the book he picked out, but after a while, he couldn’t even be bothered to sit down. Rather, he was simply reading while standing by the shelves, grabbing a new book the moment he finished the previous one.

At first, the old man assumed that Zhang Yang was just looking for a book he liked, but it wasn’t long before the old man realized he was wrong. Once Zhang Yang picked out a book, he would read almost every page. It was also clear that Zhang Yang’s reading speed was ridiculously fast.

If it wasn’t for the fact that Zhang Yang was completely absorbed in his reading, the old man would have chalked up this spectacle to it simply being a student putting on airs. The old man who had been on the verge of leaving had a new reason to stay in the library. He chose a book for himself and took a seat nearby while occasionally glancing towards Zhang Yang.

The seconds ticked by. Minutes flew by. Hours were lost. Until all of a sudden, Zhang Yang raised his head. Time had passed, and he was certain that it had passed faster than he’d expected.  He’d already been reading for four hours. Zhang Yang himself didn’t know how many books he had read, but as long as there was another unread book before him, he couldn’t help but flip through it and absorb the contents within. He read the easy ones quickly while slowing down on the more complex and technical texts.

Finally, he stopped reading to stretch. Zhang Yang felt a tad melancholic after standing in place for four hours; he was also starving.  Zhang Yang looked back at the bookshelf, planning to read one last book before heading back to the dorms.

But before he even had time to decide, an unexpected voice grabbed his attention.

“How about this one?” The old man said as he walked up to Zhang Yang, holding out a book.

“Oh… thanks…” Zhang Yang didn’t even lift his head as he accepted the book. Its title read, “Computational Fluid Dynamics.” Immediately, he began flipping through it. And just like that, he was enthralled by the book. This was actually a very famous book, written by Weslin from the Netherlands.

The old man smiled silently. As he observed the young man, he felt that his instincts had been correct. This young man wasn’t putting on airs; rather, he was genuinely enjoying this book.  Zhang Yang’s look of concentration reminded him of his own passion for mathematics when he was younger.

“Not bad, not bad…”

However, Zhang Yang was really hungry. He lost focus. In that moment, his overwhelming hunger was the only thing that could divert his attention away from reading.

“Why did you stop reading?” The old man asked. He was puzzled as he could clearly see Zhang Yang’s reluctant expression. If he enjoyed it that much, why not take the book back to his room and continue reading?

“Well…I’ll come back tomorrow to read. I dropped my library card…”

The old man nodded quietly. His eyes followed the departing Zhang Yang, a thoughtful expression appearing on  his face.

…

After leaving the library, Zhang Yang went to the Chinese department, but he didn’t see the girl. With a gloomy expression he trudged back to his dorm; what kind of society was this? Everyone was supposed to have decent living standards now, right? So why was he still toiling away for three meals a day?

At this point, all Zhang Yang had left to do was find his roommate and prepare dinner.  Zhang Yang rubbed his rumbling stomach again. He’d lost count of the number of times he’d done so.  As his hunger grew, so did his desire to rub it.

Zhang Yang felt like his body was changing, especially in regards to his increased sensitivity to hunger. Because, seriously, something like this was unimaginable in the past.

Of course what Zhang Yang didn’t realize was that, while his increased mental workload still wasn’t comparable to the burden of physical labor, other factors such as the existence of many elites within his mind were responsible for draining his body of nutrients at such a rapid rate.

“Zhang Yang, someone is waiting for you in the dorm.”

“Oh…”

The moment Zhang Yang arrived at the dorm, that old man watching the dorm gates quickly and energetically got up from his lounge chair. Zhang Yang immediately felt happy. Not many people came to see him, which meant there was a 99% chance it was Liu Biao. There hadn’t been any news from that guy recently, so showing up at that moment was good timing!

Zhang Yang didn’t want to waste time chatting with the old man and quickly climbed the stairs to the fifth floor. He had already secretly decided that today he would go to the restaurant outside of school to spoil himself and eat a ton of meat and fish.

“Zhang Yang, someone’s looking for you…”

“Zhang Yang, hurry up and go back to your dorm. Someone’s been waiting a long time for you!”

“Zhang Yang, you’re finally here…”

Zhang Yang felt things were a bit strange. Everyone he met on the stairs told him someone was waiting for him, and they all had mysterious expressions on their faces. Of course, using Zhang Yang’s words, those were fucking lewd expressions.

Who could it be?

Zhang Yang couldn’t help but slow down his pace, his brain working like a calculator, but he still could not imagine anyone other than Liu Bo coming to the dorms to look for him.

Suddenly!

Zhang Yang’s heart tightened! Could Xiao Yiran have come to kill him?

Zhang Yang felt his heart beating, but he couldn’t just leave. Even if someone came to his dorm to kill him, he couldn’t avoid them for an entire year, nor could he not come back to the dorm to sleep.

A gentleman could be killed but not humiliated! [1]

Zhang Yang pumped himself mentally, but his movements were getting slower and slower. He would have preferred to climb these last few stairs for a decade or something!

Translator’s Notes

[1] A proverb that means to die with honor than live with disgrace. A scholar/gentleman prefers death to humiliation.